Top IM terrorist Riyaz Bhatkal key suspect in Bangalore blasts

Indian Mujahideen (IM) founder-
member Riyaz Bhatkal, who escaped abroad, is back in the
country and has emerged as the main suspect in the blasts that
took place before an IPL cricket match in Bangalore.

New Delhi: Indian Mujahideen (IM) founder-
member Riyaz Bhatkal, who escaped abroad, is back in the
country and has emerged as the main suspect in the blasts that
took place before an IPL cricket match in Bangalore.

Bhatkal is suspected of carrying out a number of serial
blasts in the country between 2005 and 2009. Sources said the
mastermind of the IM, amalgam of Pakistan-based terror outfit
Lashker-e-Taiba and banned SIMI, is back in the country.

Incidentally, the picture which the security agencies had
believed to be of Bhatkal has turned out to be wrong, the
sources said.

The Union Home Ministry had earlier said the kind of
material used and the modus operandi pointed to involvement of
IM in the twin explosions near the packed Chinnaswamy cricket
stadium on Saturday. Fifteen people were injured in the blasts
that occurred barely an hour before an IPL match.

The sources said the mechanism of using loosely-packed
ammonium nitrate with engine oil and ball bearings had been
adopted by the IM in earlier blasts that shook the country
between 2005 and 2009.

The aim of perpetrators was to create a panic situation
by blowing off the generator station and bringing the cricket
stadium into darkness to create panic which could have lead to
stampede, the sources said.

Bangalore has been on the target of IM for long and a
series of bomb blasts had taken place in September last year.